UAE influencer Taim Al Falasi talks to Gulf News about her passion and emergence as a social media star
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#UAEnews #socialmedia #influencer
Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3d8Go9m
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #socialmedia #influencer
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00:00People have been asking, especially my dad, who passed away one year ago,
00:04and he was like, why don't you keep your name Fatim?
00:07You're spoiled already, because Fatima is actually,
00:09they call her Fatim if they want to spoil her.
00:12And I insisted, no, I'll just keep a stage name of myself,
00:15which is Taim, and then he understood that.
00:20Actually, the journey started really in an early age.
00:24I was around eight, nine years old,
00:27and I remember looking into the mirror and having a script of my own show,
00:32where I'm the presenter, I'm the one who answers,
00:37I'm the fan of myself, and I'm the full package,
00:40just to entertain myself.
00:42And my mom saw that.
00:43And I remember my mom came to me,
00:45and there was an advertisement on the newspaper.
00:49They are looking for young presenters for a kid's show or something.
00:53And she said, oh my God, you should go there.
00:56But you should talk to your father.
00:58I said, no, I'm afraid, because at that time, eight years old, 1999,
01:05at that time, like a girl, a female figure,
01:08it's not something very familiar to see her on TV,
01:10maybe in the news, but not like the entertaining way.
01:14So she said, go, and I'll have your back.
01:17I said, okay.
01:18So I was looking, yeah, she's behind me,
01:20and I'm taking the newspaper to my dad, and he saw that.
01:23Then he actually threw the newspaper away.
01:25He said, no girls on TV.
01:27And like all my dreams been crashed on that.
01:31And I look at my back.
01:32I didn't see my mother.
01:37So it started that way.
01:3910 years later, the life changed.
01:42Everything changed.
01:43Without even asking my father, I just told him,
01:45I'm going to study media.
01:47And like, you know how time changes,
01:50and you don't know what happened, and everything's just normal.
01:54I studied, and I had that passion.
01:58And I said, now it's social media era.
02:00Why?
02:00I'm still stuck with TV and the traditional media.
02:04Let's create something where it's online.
02:05So I created my own magazine, which was online and printed.
02:13And it was a nice success, actually.
02:15After that, I said, okay, I did a magazine.
02:18We did this printed part.
02:19Let's do the radio.
02:21So I created the first online radio show in the UAE.
02:25And it was called On Air with Tame.
02:29I was influenced at that time with On Air with,
02:34what's his name?
02:35Ryan, I guess.
02:36So I had that name.
02:37And it was a really success and a hit,
02:39like 40K plays per episode.
02:42So give me this.
02:44So I said, okay, Tame, now we've been behind the scenes a lot.
02:48Let's just be in front of the camera.
02:51YouTube was there.
02:52So I opened my channel and it was really organic.
02:55I remember the first video on YouTube.
02:57The first vlog was just me going to Dubai mall.
03:00And it was phenomenal because in the Gulf,
03:03no girl had took the camera and recorded just a normal life.
03:08Just me going to the mall.
03:09To people, it was silly.
03:11It was pointless.
03:12I remember friends of my mom and my aunts were telling her,
03:18why is she showing us?
03:19We're not interested.
03:20People are not interested to see about her house or family.
03:25Who is she?
03:26So that people would be interested.
03:28I remember those words, but I ignored that
03:31because I have my mother on my side
03:33and I continued doing vlogs and content
03:36and it had elevated travel vlogs, event vlogs.
03:42And then it all came in and then it turned into an income,
03:46which was the interesting part as well.
03:48So Anas Bukhash, I remember one of the people
03:51who actually encouraged me and said, yes, stay.
03:54Now let's do contracts with people.
03:56Let's do so.
03:56He opened my eyes actually into making revenue
03:59and he didn't have a company by that time.
04:02It's just like a friend actually.
04:05And then started with one of the biggest contracts
04:08I've ever signed was Atsalat being an ambassador for two years.
04:13So with that was actually the biggest push for me.
04:16I have now eight restaurants because of social media.
04:23I can't explain.
04:24I can't tell you how important it is.
04:26I can't tell you figures.
04:27I can't tell you numbers because this explains this.
04:32It's just logic.
04:35We've been always struggling with people underestimating bloggers.
04:41Let's not even just say influencers
04:42because a person with an influence is something huge.
04:45A bad or good.
04:47But let's say just the basic thing of social media, a blogger.
04:50They underestimate a blogger.
04:52Okay, we work from, for example, 8 a.m. till 3 or 4
04:56or maybe at banks until 7 p.m. to get the one coverage
05:02for a salary for a whole month for someone,
05:05one coverage for one hour of an influencer
05:07who went to a perfume shop, for example.
05:10So they did nothing.
05:11They just raised their phones.
05:12That's, I'm telling you how people actually think about it
05:15and I actually think about it that way because it makes sense, yeah.
05:19For just one hour and they get the amount that we get
05:22sitting on our desks for eight, nine hours.
05:25And they underestimate that actually mentally
05:30you have to always be prepared,
05:31which is this is a whole different thing
05:33because I'm not always happy.
05:35I'm not always, I don't always want to,
05:38if I see someone on the street and they,
05:40oh team, maybe sometimes I'm in a bad mood
05:42to actually interact even with people.
05:45So mentally and health-wise, we're not always there.
05:49So that's a thing.
05:50It's not like, I'm not like a clown
05:52who would always be entertaining people and stuff like that.
05:56So that's on mental health and stress and stuff like that.
06:00But other than that, editing, being able,
06:06because I could go to the perfume shop for an hour,
06:10talk about it and no one would go there.
06:12I can't do that.
06:13But if I go there with determination,
06:17with confidence, with knowing how to sell that perfume
06:22and I know what to put first and what to put last
06:24and I script it inside my mind
06:27and I tell them, no, let's do it that way.
06:29So all of this effort, yes, it's an hour,
06:32but I've scripted, I've done my job
06:34so that they could call me again and tell me, come.
06:36Because I don't want to just be visiting places,
06:38having money from everywhere
06:41and then I have a bad reputation of just being there and that.
06:44No, I make sure that I have that quality of content.